{"data":{"id":"1451","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1451,"topgoose_id":326,"tms_id":1451,"display_name":"Andrew Wyeth","sort_name":"Wyeth Andrew","display_date":"1917–2009","begin_date":"1917","end_date":"2009","biography":"\u003cp\u003eAndrew Wyeth established himself as\na master of realism amid the ascendancy\nof abstraction during the 1940s, remaining\nfaithful to his meticulous depictions of\nrural America for more than sixty years.\nHis subjects were the immediate\nsurroundings of his modest life—family,\nfriends, and, above all, the landscapes\nof his hometown of Chadds Ford,\nPennsylvania, and his summer retreat\nin Cushing, Maine. \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/3362\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eWinter Fields\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, an early\ncanvas painted before Wyeth began to\nincorporate figures into his work, portrays\na crow lying lifeless in a desiccated\nfield. The only signs of life are two houses\nvisible on the horizon in the far distance.\nCompleted at the height of World War II,\nthis somber, bleak scene may have\nbeen intended to evoke the casualties\noccurring in the battlefields of Europe\nor to reference the Revolutionary\nWar dead of the Brandywine battlefield\nadjacent to the farm.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo bolster the authenticity of the\nimagery, Wyeth made two sketches prior\nto painting\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;Winter Field:\u003c/em\u003e one of the\ndead crow, which he found near his Chadds\nFord studio, and another of the spindly\nclump of grass at the lower left. Yet despite\nthe composition’s extraordinary detail,\nit subtly distorts reality. The rendering of\nthe bird and foreground grasses is\nso painstaking as to seem exaggerated,\ncreating a compression of the pictorial\nspace toward the canvas surface.\nThis effect is underscored by the equally\nsharp focus of the elements in the far\ndistance, which defies visual logic and\nengenders an uncanny feeling not entirely\nout of step with contemporaneous\nSurrealist works, despite the artist’s desire\nto distance himself from such practices.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500001266","wikidata_id":"Q316325","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:37:23.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-23T01:32:35.722-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1451/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1451/exhibitions"}}}}